JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jaguars' hiring of Chris Doyle as Director of Sports Performance by head coach Urban Meyer could bring some tension and unnecessary drama into the locker room. Doyle was accused by multiple Black players at Iowa, where he was strength and conditioning coach for 21 years, of making racist remarks and bullying them, charges that he denied after agreeing to separate from the school for a $1.1 million severance.
Before Urban Meyer could even begin plotting offseason strategy on free agency or the NFL draft, he made a hiring decision that should leave a lot of people shaking their heads.
Meyer brought aboard longtime Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle as the team's Director of Sports Performance, despite accusations by many Hawkeyes Black players of him making racist remarks and bullying them. His controversy at Iowa resulted in the school drawing up a separation agreement from Doyle in June. He agreed to not take any legal action against the school in exchange for a $1.1 million severance.
At a time when racial unrest has been the impetus for the “Black Lives Matter” movement, a cause that prompted a good portion of the Jaguars to march in peaceful protest last summer, it’s impossible to defend Meyer hiring Doyle under these circumstances. It also contradicts owner Shad Khan’s message last year about condemning racism.
How can a first-time NFL head coach, or any coach, not see the potential negative ramifications created by this hire? Did Meyer honestly not realize this could be a problem? It sent immediate red flags all over social media. I tweeted moments after the Jaguars announced Doyle’s hiring that it was a “puzzling hire from a PR standpoint” and that “Meyer, of all people, should have known better.”
While coaching at Ohio State, it was Meyer who drew blistering criticism for defending assistant coach Zach Smith, accused multiple times of domestic violence against his then wife, Courtney. Meyer denied knowing much about Smith’s past, and he was later suspended three games by Ohio State for his misleading statements and handling of the matter.
So despite the pushback Meyer received from his previous employer on poor handling of domestic violence incidents involving a staff member, he still turned around in his new job and hired Doyle, an accused racist. And hired into a position where he would be entrusted to oversee the physical well-being of his players, mostly Black players.
Doyle defended his behavior in a tweet after leaving Iowa, saying he never “crossed the line of unethical behavior or bias based upon race.”
Meyer said multiple times that he “vetted [Doyle] thoroughly,” and that GM Trent Baalke and Khan did the same, but never expressed what exactly he did to thoroughly vet him. And let’s not forget, this is the same owner who felt compelled to fire front-office czar Tom Coughlin in December, 2018, after the NFL Players Association complained about the Jaguars having an inordinate amount of medical grievances being filed by players.
Evidently, none of it matters in Urban’s mind because he obviously thinks Doyle is so good at his job — he was pulling down a nation-high $800,000 for a strength coach at Iowa — that the optics of being accused of mistreatment by players can be overlooked.
There’s only one logical explanation why Meyer would risk hiring Doyle when he had to know heat would come down: His win-at-all-costs philosophy trumped everything. He didn’t care enough to consider how bringing Doyle aboard might cause uneasy feelings in the locker room, but he may find out soon enough.
Remember, Meyer has repeatedly said he wants to hire “the best of the best” for the Jaguars in all facets. So he may believe Doyle’s reputation for being one of the country’s top strength-and-conditioning coaches for 21 years at Iowa offsets any negative fallout from his alleged behavior.
But in the coming weeks, Meyer is likely going to have to look his Black players in the eye — including maybe Iowa fourth-year cornerback Greg Mabin — and explain why he ignored the cloud hovering over Doyle and hired him anyway. No matter how good Doyle is at his job, and he may well be among the best at physical development of players and injury prevention, there had to be other options than possibly bringing in unnecessary friction into the locker room.
Sadly, it’s another example of the potential downside of Meyer’s willingness to do anything to win.
